Traefik & Ingresses with NGINX Annotations¶

The experimental Kubernetes Controller for Ingresses with NGINX annotations.

Ingress Discovery

The Kubernetes Ingress NGINX provider is discovering by default all Ingresses in the cluster, which may lead to duplicated routers if you are also using the Kubernetes Ingress provider. We recommend to use IngressClass for the Ingresses you want to be handled by this provider, or to use the watchNamespace or watchNamespaceSelector options to limit the discovery of Ingresses to a specific namespace or set of namespaces.

Routing Configuration¶

The Kubernetes Ingress NGINX provider watches for incoming ingresses events, such as the example below, and derives the corresponding dynamic configuration from it, which in turn will create the resulting routers, services, handlers, etc.

Configuration Example¶

Configuring Kubernetes Ingress NGINX Controller

RBAC

---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: traefik-ingress-controller
rules:
  - apiGroups:
      - ""
    resources:
      - namespaces
    verbs:
      - get
  - apiGroups:
      - ""
    resources:
      - configmaps
      - pods
      - secrets
      - endpoints
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - ""
    resources:
      - services
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - networking.k8s.io
    resources:
      - ingresses
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - networking.k8s.io
    resources:
      - ingresses/status
    verbs:
      - update
  - apiGroups:
      - networking.k8s.io
    resources:
      - ingressclasses
    verbs:
      - get
      - list
      - watch
  - apiGroups:
      - ""
    resources:
      - events
    verbs:
      - create
      - patch
  - apiGroups:
      - discovery.k8s.io
    resources:
      - endpointslices
    verbs:
      - list
      - watch
      - get

    ---
    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: ClusterRoleBinding
    metadata:
      name: traefik-ingress-controller
    roleRef:
      apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
      kind: ClusterRole
      name: traefik-ingress-controller
    subjects:
      - kind: ServiceAccount
        name: traefik-ingress-controller
        namespace: default

Traefik

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: traefik-ingress-controller

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: traefik
  labels:
    app: traefik

spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: traefik
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: traefik
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: traefik-ingress-controller
      containers:
        - name: traefik
          image: traefik:v3.5
          args:
            - --entryPoints.web.address=:80
            - --providers.kubernetesingressnginx
          ports:
            - name: web
              containerPort: 80

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: traefik
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  selector:
    app: traefik
  ports:
    - name: web
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80

Whoami

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: whoami
  labels:
    app: whoami

spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: whoami
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: whoami
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: whoami
          image: traefik/whoami
          ports:
            - containerPort: 80

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: whoami

spec:
  selector:
    app: whoami
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 80

Ingress

---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: IngressClass
metadata:
  name: nginx
spec:
  controller: k8s.io/ingress-nginx

---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: myingress

spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
    - host: whoami.localhost
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /bar
            pathType: Exact
            backend:
              service:
                name:  whoami
                port:
                  number: 80
          - path: /foo
            pathType: Exact
            backend:
              service:
                name:  whoami
                port:
                  number: 80

Annotations Support¶

This section lists all known NGINX Ingress annotations, split between those currently implemented (with limitations if any) and those not implemented. Limitations or behavioral differences are indicated where relevant.

Global configuration

Traefik does not expose all global configuration options to control default behaviors for ingresses.

Some behaviors that are globally configurable in NGINX (such as default SSL redirect, rate limiting, or affinity) are currently not supported and cannot be overridden per-ingress as in NGINX.

Caveats and Key Behavioral Differences¶

Authentication: Forward auth behaves differently and session caching is not supported. NGINX supports sub-request based auth, while Traefik forwards the original request.
Session Affinity: Only persistent mode is supported.
Leader Election: Not supported; no cluster mode with leader election.
Default Backend: Only defaultBackend in Ingress spec is supported; the annotation is ignored.
Load Balancing: Only round_robin is supported; EWMA and IP hash are not supported.
CORS: NGINX responds with all configured headers unconditionally; Traefik handles headers differently between pre-flight and regular requests.
TLS/Backend Protocols: AUTO_HTTP, FCGI and some TLS options are not supported in Traefik.
Path Handling: Traefik preserves trailing slashes by default; NGINX removes them unless configured otherwise.

Supported NGINX Annotations¶

Annotation	Limitations / Notes
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity-mode`	Only persistent mode supported; balanced/canary not supported.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-type`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret-type`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-realm`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-url`	Only URL and response headers copy supported. Forward auth behaves differently than NGINX.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-method`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-response-headers`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect`	Cannot opt-out per route if enabled globally.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/force-ssl-redirect`	Cannot opt-out per route if enabled globally.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-passthrough`	Some differences in SNI/default backend handling.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/use-regex`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-name`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-path`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-domain`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-samesite`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/load-balance`	Only round_robin supported; ewma and IP hash not supported.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol`	FCGI and AUTO_HTTP not supported.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-cors`	Partial support.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-credentials`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-headers`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-methods`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-allow-origin`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/cors-max-age`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-server-name`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-name`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-verify`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-secret`
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/service-upstream`

Unsupported NGINX Annotations¶

Want to Add Support for More Annotations?

You can help extend support in two ways:

Open a PR with the new annotation support.
Reach out to the Traefik Labs support team.

All contributions and suggestions are welcome — let's build this together!

Annotation	Notes
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/app-root`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/affinity-canary-behavior`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-tls-secret`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-tls-verify-depth`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-tls-verify-client`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-tls-error-page`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-tls-pass-certificate-to-upstream`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-tls-match-cn`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-cache-key`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-cache-duration`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-keepalive`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-keepalive-share-vars`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-keepalive-requests`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-keepalive-timeout`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-proxy-set-headers`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-snippet`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-global-auth`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary-by-header`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary-by-header-value`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary-by-header-pattern`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary-by-cookie`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary-weight`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/canary-weight-total`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/client-body-buffer-size`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/configuration-snippet`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/custom-http-errors`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/disable-proxy-intercept-errors`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/default-backend`	Not supported yet; use `defaultBackend` in Ingress spec.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rate-after`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rate`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-whitelist`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rps`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-rpm`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-burst-multiplier`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/limit-connections`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/global-rate-limit`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/global-rate-limit-window`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/global-rate-limit-key`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/global-rate-limit-ignored-cidrs`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/permanent-redirect`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/permanent-redirect-code`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/temporal-redirect`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/preserve-trailing-slash`	Not supported yet; Traefik preserves by default.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-cookie-domain`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-cookie-path`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-connect-timeout`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-send-timeout`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-read-timeout`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-next-upstream`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-next-upstream-timeout`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-next-upstream-tries`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-request-buffering`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-redirect-from`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-redirect-to`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-http-version`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-ciphers`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-verify-depth`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-ssl-protocols`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-rewrite-log`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/satisfy`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/server-alias`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/server-snippet`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-conditional-samesite-none`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-expires`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/session-cookie-change-on-failure`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-ciphers`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-prefer-server-ciphers`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/connection-proxy-header`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-access-log`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-opentracing`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/opentracing-trust-incoming-span`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-opentelemetry`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/opentelemetry-trust-incoming-span`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-modsecurity`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/enable-owasp-core-rules`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/modsecurity-transaction-id`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/modsecurity-snippet`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/mirror-request-body`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/mirror-target`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/mirror-host`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/x-forwarded-prefix`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/upstream-hash-by`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/upstream-vhost`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/denylist-source-range`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/whitelist-source-range`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-buffering`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-buffers-number`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-buffer-size`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-max-temp-file-size`	Not supported yet.
`nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/stream-snippet`	Not supported yet.